Five years after the Hopwood court ruling that halted minority recruitment at The University of Texas School of Law, the school is winning national praise for its exceptional efforts to attract minority students. Time magazine, for example, has declared UT's law school to be the national leader in finding ways to broaden its traditional applicant pool.

But it wasn't always that way. There was a time when African Americans were not allowed to attend the law school. Or to study in any classroom at the University, for that matter.

But in 1946, a college graduate and Houston postal worker named Heman Marion Sweatt attempted to register for classes at the UT law school and filed a lawsuit when he was refused admission because of his race. After four difficult years in court, Heman Sweatt became the first African American to be admitted to The University of Texas School of Law. And then the real challenge began.

"The hostility was terrifying. I think I was in the law school five minutes before I was pulled out of a registration line and cussed out," Sweatt recalled many years later. "I had threats against my life. The first Friday in school, there was a Ku Klux Klan demonstration on campus."

His health collapsed. His marriage fell apart. He failed his courses and eventually dropped out of school.

But Heman Sweatt had accomplished what he set out to do. His six-year struggle had brought legal justice and equal opportunity to his home state's flagship university. He had torn down racial barriers and integrated The University of Texas.

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